SIE Boss Jim Ryan Wants 100M Players Enjoying Their Games
Jim Ryan, the boss of Sony Interactive Entertainment, has just made some surprising comments about the reach of their consoles. The company’s head honcho said that he is frustrated at how PlayStation’s first party games are just “gated” to their current console model audience of tens of millions of gamers, when what he really wants is to reach hundreds of millions.
“I really believe that the PlayStation 5 will be Sony’s biggest and best and most loved PlayStation yet,” said Ryan. “I would also like to see a world where the games that we make at PlayStation can be enjoyed by many tens of millions of people—perhaps hundreds of millions of people.”
“I think some of the art that our studios are making are some of the finest entertainment that has been made anywhere in the world,” Ryan continued. “To gate the audience for that at 20 or 30 million frustrates me.”
Ryan’s recent comments are a bit surprising, especially since Sony has been very public about the company’s decision to stay committed to console exclusive. In fact, just in the past year they have hugely softened their approach to PC, with some notable titles having already been launched, and even more have reportedly been planned.
Also, PlayStation has not been strongly pushing streaming as compared to its rival company Microsoft. The latter has allowed their users to play Xbox games that are streamed to mobile devices, PC, and even older consoles via the cloud.
PlayStation has also not been very active when it comes to mobile gaming, either. However, Ryan did confirm that they intend to take some of their “iconic” IPs to mobile sometime in March 2022, which is the end of their current business year.
Christopher Dring, the person who interviewed Ryan, shared his thoughts regarding the recent interview and commented that the exec’s comments seem to point to a possible increase in PC releases in the future. “Making games more accessible and inclusive, in every sense of those words, may prove to be something that defines this generation,” Dring said. “That will likely mean different games, it might mean boosting up PS Now or PS Plus, it could mean bringing more titles to PC.”